IRELAND.

Mr. O'Connell's proposed conference does not seem exactly to meet the views of the Young Irelanders. There was a meeting of the seceders at the Nation office on Friday last week; at which resolutions were agreed to admitting the advantage of a conference, but exhibiting some soreness that the names of the members had been dictated by Mr. O'Connell, and hinting that there were other questions than mere legal ones to be considered. These resolutions were forwarded to Mr. O'Connell, by the Secretary, Mr. T. Devin Reilly; who has replied in along letter, limiting the objects of the conference almost exclusively to the matter of law. No questions of the terms of readmission "can arise until the law is ascertained, and fully and unequivocally submitted to." Mr. O'Connell is the first to announce that Mr. Smith O'Brien has "decidedly rejected the conference-"

The Repeal proceedings in Conciliation Hall were not very striking. Mr. Nicholas Maher, M.P., occupied the chair. A letter was read from Mr. Doheny to Mr. Fitzgerald, apologizing for some offensive expression in his speech at the Seceders' meeting. Mr. O'Connell was full of charity, and expressed the necessary forgiveness. The Agitator then mentioned the state of the country as tenfold worse than it was last week. The landlords were generally doing their duty. The speech of the day was all about the contemplated reconciliation: he had done all in his power to effect it, and it was not his fault if it were not brought about. He did not, however, despair of seeing the Repeal body united.

Rent, 1011.

A preparatory meeting of influential men of all parties, including Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Frederick Shaw, was held in Dublin on Friday, to con- sider the propriety of adopting some energetic steps in the present crisis. The proceedings were strictly private.

Another meeting was held on Monday; at which Mr. Frederick Shaw, M.P., Mr. George A. Hamilton, M.P., Mr. O'Connell; M.P., Mr. Moneell, Mr. Naper, and several other gentlemen of note, assembled. The proceed- ings were entirely private; but a resolution has been allowed to escape into print, declaring the expediency of forming a Committee "to collect sug- gestions to be laid before the Irish Members of both Houses, as to the mea- sures which ought to be brought forward."

In a letter to the Evening Moil, Mr. Ralph Osborne revives the project of a meeting of landed proprietors in Dublin. This time he suggests that twenty-five gentlemen should be selected from each of the four provinces, to assemble in Dublin in the first week in January. No O'Connellphobia or O'Brien panic must be allowed to interfere; for if the present opportunity be neglected, Irish proprietors will speedily come to be classed among the things that were.

This last opinion seems to be shared by Mr. Wilmot Chetwode, of Queen's County; who exhorts the landlords to improve the "little interval" yet left "before the foundering crash."

Captain Shirley Ball, a landed proprietor of the county of Longford, loudly complains that Ireland should be made the battle-field for the two great contending factions in England. A speedy union of the nobility and gentry of Ireland can alone put an end to this- " A general meeting of their body should be summoned in Dublin, supported by all the Irish Members, and their united protest recorded against any loner submitting to be the victims of English party triumphs, on pain of withdrawing their support in upholding the union between the two countries. A bold step of this nature would do more towards coercing the English Ministry into legislating, not for party, but for the welfare of Ireland, than any other; and the crisis has arrived which demands the movement."

Mr. Hugh Morgan Tuite, one of the Whig Members for the county of Westmeath, looks upon " absenteeism " as the monster evil which afflicts the country, and asks, "Does not the impossibility of reproductive works being carried on arise solely from the great difficulty of getting the neces- sary consents and guarantees from absentees and creditors of litigated es- tates?"

Mr. Samuel W. Blacken writes from Colamber Edgeworthstown to advocate immediate action. An amendment of the Labour-rate Act is necessary, and must be passed immediately on the meeting of Parliament. To this end there must be unanimity among the Irish Members- " In furtherance of this object," he says, "I have taken the liberty of request- ing a meeting of the gentry, clergy, and landholders of the county of Longford, on Saturday next, 'to consider the propriety of calling upon our Representatives to assist in convening a meeting of Irish Members in Dublin, early in January, to decide upon the measure necessary to be introduced next session for the purpose of amending the Labour-rate Act.' " "A Clare Magistrate and Chairman of a Relief Committee" also calls aloud for unanimity amongst the nobility and gentry, and for a January meeting in Dublin. The meeting should urge "the town-land as the basis of future taxation, with reproductive employment for the labouring popu- lation in reclamation of the waste lands of Ireland?

, The town-land assessment is also strongly insisted upon by "An Ulster Landlord"; who complains, that while he has "by years of expenditure and exertion, raised his tenantry above pauperism, and while he is, by the greatest self-denial, procuring means to keep the whole population upon his property from destitution he is taxed enormously for the maintenance of those paupers created by ;he neglect of others, and now is liable to an assessment of unknown amount to provide for the employment of the im- poverished population of other estates."

The crisis has at length drawn out Mr. Sharman Crawford; who states his views for the edification of Lord John Russell. He refers every evil in the'present condition of the people of Ireland to the system of letting lands, recklessly adopted by those proprietors on whom the forfeited estates were originally conferred. But the landlords of the present day cannot throw off the responsibility attached to the misdeeds of their forefathers: they must assume that responsibility. They have also neglects of their own to answer for. The employment of the people must be made compulsory on the property of the country; not in the manner provided for by the recent Employment Act, which encourages lavish expenditure by furnishing the means for that expenditure without the control of the pressure of present taxation, but by means of a local committee appointed in each union; powers being "vested in the Government to impose a tax on the union to Etch an amount as might be necessary to give employment (or else rations of food) to such of these destitute persons as should not receive employ- ment, or be able to obtain it, by other means "— "I would propose, that this should be combined with a clause exempting from taxation any town-land, or combination of town-lands, in one estate, which shall give employment to its due quota of the labourers returned by the Relief Com- mittee as in want of employment; the tax is to be levied, as under the Poor-law, in certain proportions from landlord and tenant, and on all descriptions of real property, subjecting to such tax every holder of land, without exception, no mat, ter how small the extent. . . . . But under the extraordinary and unex- pected pressure existing at this time, I would propose that a temporary discre- tion should be vested in the Government, in case the demands on any particular union exceeded a certain amount on the valuation; and, in case the Government should be satisfied that all due exertion had been made in the locality, to order a contribution in aid from the public funds, to such extent as might be necessary, not to be chargeable on the union."

If, however, this duty be imposed on the property of the country, the owners of property and tenants have a right to some enactments in their favour; • namely-

" 1. Ample and easy powers of charging the inheritance of settled estates with money expended on every kind of permanent improvements. "2. A power of charging mortgagees, annuitants, and rent-chargers with their proportion of all local taxation paid by the landowner.

"3. Ample powers to sell or exchange settled property, subject to the uses of the trusts.

"4. Power to the tenant to obtain value or compensation for his tenant-right, arising from the expenditure of labour and capital in improvements."

This week, Mr. Poulett Scrope is emphatically interrogative. He de- mands an answer to the question, who is answerable for the deaths by star- vation which are now of daily occurrence? and he complains that while the population is decimated by famine and fever, and the workhouses are over crowded, out-door relief is not only not given, but is strictly prohibited.

Mr. Smith O'Brien's fourth letter to the landed proprietors of Ireland still harps on the drainage and improvement of land; but without throw- ing any new light on the subject.

• The Board of Works have issued a circular to county engineer's and surveyors, conveying instructions to the effect that no more public works (such as new roads, cutting down bills, &c.) are to be commenced, while those in progress of execution are to be finished with all possible speed; as in future the money is to be expended on works of a reproductive kind, namely, drainage and subsoiling. The circular also specifies how these works are to be executed, and lays down fresh regulations for the employ- ment of the labourers engaged upon them.—Dublin Correspondent of the Times.

The condition of the provinces does not improve as the winter advances: destitution is rapidly extending in Cork and various other counties. Com- plaints are made of distraints for rent by the landlords; and of the refusal of many to contribute to the relief funds in different localities.

Mr. Labouchere's official circular seems, so far, to have had but slight effect in checking the " excitement " in the gun-trade; which, according to the latest accounts from North and South, is in just as flourishing a state as before the appearance of the Castle instructions. Indeed, it has been seized on with impudent alacrity to serve as a direct sanction for the arming: witness the following circular— "TO TIIE PUBLIC.

"'The right of carrying arms for lawful objects, which every Irishman now pommies: —Chief Secretary's Letter. "Peter Flanigan, locksmith and gnnmaker, grateful for past favours, begs leave to inform his friends and the public in general, that he has just received his win- ter assortment of fire-arms from Birmingham direct, which he is enabled to dis- pose of on the most moderate terms. "N.B. Guns, pistols, and all kinds of arms repaired. "27, High Street." A paragraph from the Meath Herald shows that the "Peter Flanigans• are not idle- " The demand for fire-arms is rapidly increasing! At Navan, on Monday last, an itinerant auctioneer disposed of a large lot of 'handy ones' to the boys at various prices from 18s. to 308. The opportunity of becoming master of 'an illigant gun wid a bayonet to boot,' for the small charge of IL, was too much foe the imagination of a Gael—it was perfectly irresistible; and, accordingly, many of the peasantry went home from the fair provided with 'tools,' and a laudable de- termination to try their 'metal' on something. Several accidents have occurred from an unguarded use of this novelty in the hands of the people. One young man, whose father is employed on the public works near this town, being rather a tyro at rifle practice, accommodatingly shot one of his fore-fingers off on Sunday last; and another man, from similar ignorance, and calculating on making 8 stunnin' hit,' blew lock, barrel, and all away, but fortunately without any per- sonal damage."

The 7'ipperary Constitution narrates an anecdote of the proficiency of the peasantry in gun-practice-

"A gentleman, riding in the vicinity of this town a few days back, espied a hat placed on a spade in the centre of a green field; and being somewhat surprised at its location, in ground of this description, he watched attentively for a while. His surprise, however, was soon banished; for in a few moments he perceived ne less than seven men kneeling and taking aim at the ill-fated hat. They fired

i

with great precision, and, h s needless to say, made a riddle of the target. The field-days are incessant, and 'the young idea is shooting in all directions.' The bad work goes bravely on. May it soon have an end, say we."

Some further results of the free trade in fire-arms will be found in the following- " On Sunday night, the gamekeeper of Sir Hugh Stewart, Bait, on going his rounds in the demesne of Ballygowley House county Tyrone, saw a man armed' who, on being challenged by the keeper, and 'being closed on by him, discharged the contents of his gun, with fatal precision, into the body of the keeper; who died on the spot. Every exertion was being made by the police this morning to arrest the murderer."

The Southern Reporter cannot, however, "participate in the tremendous terrors by which some of our Conservative contemporaries are possessed ° in consequence of the general arming. It admits that the demand had "in- creased," but explains, that "the persons who purchased were for the most part, if not solely, extensive farmers having property to protect, and anxious to deter hunger-bitten people from trespass and intrusion. The guns are bought by the strong farmers' who have fields of turnips, green crepe, or haggards in which produce still remains. This is the explanation, and we are perfectly convinced such is the fact."